Obama outhouse float sparks political firestorm

An outhouse with the words “Obama” and “Presidential Library” was spotted in the flatbed of a blue pickup truck during a July 4th parade in Norfolk, Nebraska, The Washington Post reports. The float also featured a male dummy wearing overalls and holding a walker standing outside the outside, which was decorated with American flags.

“I’m ashamed, I’m appalled,” Glory Kathurima, a black woman residing in Norfolk, told CBS News Omaha affiliate KMTV. “You see people laughing and pointing at it, smiling, looking positive about it. I immediately felt sick to my stomach. I knew what that meant, and I knew there was no sort of political statement being made by an image like that.”

The Omaha World-Herald reports receiving several emails from people upset about the float, including one person who said that it was wrong to allow this sort of image to be displayed at a July 4th parade.

“There is a level of respect for the office of the Presidency which should not be crossed,” Dan Marvin, Nebraska Democratic Party Executive Director, said in an emailed statement to KLKN-TV. “It’s beyond disappointing the City of Norfolk, it’s officials and citizens would allow such a thing.”

The Post notes that this isn’t the first time that an outhouse has appeared in a parade with the words “Obama” and “Presidential Library’ written on it. In 2012, a Montana expressed his views in a similar fashion, attaching a fake birth certificate to the outside of the float. The float was eventually banned from other events in the state.